UGA Center for Developmental Science to host inaugural conference on risk and resilience

The Georgia Center for Developmental Science (GCDS), a University of Georgia-based research hub uniting scholars across developmental neuroscience, psychology and family science, will host its inaugural conference, “Pathways of Risk and Resilience: From Neuron to Neighborhood,” on April 22-23 at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries.

The program convenes nine nationally-recognized scholars from premier research universities across the country whose work spans developmental cognitive neuroscience, child psychiatry, developmental psychopathology, prevention science and family research, reflecting the center’s commitment to integrating perspectives across disciplines.

The conference also will feature graduate and undergraduate poster presentations and flash talks, allowing opportunities for discussion and networking.

“This interdisciplinary event marks a milestone for the GCDS, a center founded as a cross-disciplinary hub where researchers from neuroscience, developmental psychology, family science and prevention converge to advance knowledge of human development,” said GCDS founding director Assaf Oshri, the Samuel A. and Sharon Y. Nickols Endowed Professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “The conference theme, ‘From Neuron to Neighborhood,’ mirrors the GCDS mission: understanding the multi-level processes – from brain mechanisms to community environments – that underlie how children, youth and families thrive or face risk.”

Drawing together leading researchers from several institutions — including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Pennsylvania State University, Yale University, Harvard/McLean Hospital, UCLA, Notre Dame and Oklahoma State — the conference roster represents the breadth of national expertise converging on questions of risk and resilience in human development.

The speakers will lead three core panels covering developmental psychopathology, developmental cognitive neuroscience and family systems and relational processes.

Invited speakers include:

• Ran Barzilay, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Luke Hyde, Ph.D., University of Michigan
• Koraly Pérez-Edgar, Ph.D., Penn State University
• Dylan Gee, Ph.D., Yale University
• Martin Teicher, M.D.,/Ph.D., Harvard University and McLean Hospital
• Lucina Uddin, Ph.D., University of California-Los Angeles
• Mark Cummings, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
• Amanda Morris, Ph.D., Oklahoma State University
• Kristin Valentino, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame

“Anyone working or training in developmental science and closely-related fields such as psychology, neuroscience, family science and more, and especially those interested in risk and resilience from multiple levels of analysis, would benefit from this conference,” Oshri said.

Program details are available here. The conference program can be accessed here.

Founded at UGA, the GCDS serves as an interdisciplinary research hub that seeks to understand and promote healthier trajectories for children, youth and families.

In addition to Oshri, the center is led by FACS faculty members Charles Geier, associate dean for research and William P. Flatt Professor, and Steven M. Kogan, Athletic Association Professor of Human Development. Katie Suma serves as the center coordinator.

The conference is supported by the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the FACS department of human development and family science, the UGA Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, the UGA Office of Research, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Samuel and Sharon Y. Nickols endowment and private donors Bill Quinn and Jay and Deborah Mancini.